Posts Tagged "menopause"

And then the power died…what did I forget?

Posted by Liz on Aug 22, 2011 in memory/learning, menopause, Uncategorized | 1 comment

I was planning on writing a review of a new documentary about menopause when the power died. Mama Nature and her power surge obviously has other plans for me so I will leave you to an oldie but goodie. Look for Wednesday’s Bubble cause this doc is worth consideration.

And so, without further ado…

If  you’re anything like me, you are starting to forget things. Things you need to do, why you walk into rooms, shopping lists, things you said, the whole nine yards. For me, it’s become the norm, not the exception and while I spend a lot of time making jokes about it, it also drives me crazy.

Yet, today’s Bubble is not one that I’m likely to forget. I’d like to think of it as one part inspiration and one part WTF? And it leaves me with a whole lot of questions to boot.

Study findings suggest that gaining weight during menopause may increase the risk for loss of gray matter. Gray matter refers to the cortex of the brain, which contains nerve cells. It is involved in muscle control, sensory perception (seeing/hearing), emotions, speech and finally, memory.

In this study, which was published in the online edition of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers evaluated brain imaging data, demographic information (height, weight) and behavioral measures (perceived psychiatric stress) obtained from 48 healthy postmenopausal women. Data were collected over a 20-year period.

The findings showed a unique association between increase in body weight during the transition from peri- to post-menopause (as measured by body mass index or BMI) and a 22% reduction in grey matter volume. These findings occurred in women who were otherwise healthy, had no history of heart disease or psychiatric illness and did not meet the threshold for obesity (>30 BMI). All women had also undergone natural menopause.

The researchers suggest that weight gain during menopause is a “highly modifiable risk factor” that may help to prevent or slow “potential alterations in brain function that are important to quality of life.”

I’ve written previous posts on cognitive issues during menopause, whether they be linked with life stressors, HRT or aging. Now it seems that researchers are telling us that weight gain may also be a risk factor.

Less clear is how much weight gain and what we should do about it. In general one solution to combating weight gain in midlife is restraint. Coupled with exercise, this may just be the magic formula. In the meantime, I think that we need a few more studies to take a closer look at brain matter changes in midlife.

What do you think?

I just forgot why I’m asking you that…!

Wednesday Bubble: not your mama’s menopause?

Posted by Liz on Aug 17, 2011 in Boomer, menopause | 17 comments

I have been writing about the medicalization of menopause for several years now. So I was intrigued when I stumbled across a review in the Journal of Aging Studies discussing how the social construct of menopause has shifted to “an increasingly more medicalized perspective that emphasizes the biological deficits of the aging female body.”

In this piece, researcher Rebecca Utz reports on qualitative interviews that she conducted with a small group of pairs of mothers and daughters, divided by generation and apparently, attitudes towards menopause. Medicalization, she writes, “is defined as the way in which the apparently scientific knowledge of medicine is applied to a range of behaviors that are not self-evidently biological or even medical, but over which medicine has control.” Therefore, in the case of menopause, our definition has shifted from something that a natural part of our development to an illness-based perspective “requiring medical intervention.”

Accordingly, when she interviewed both groups of women (mothers born during the 1920s and 1930s, and daughters born in early to mid-1950’s) she discovered that despite the commonality of physical symptoms, attitudes were significantly different:

• The older women did not perceive menopause as a problem or disease but rather, something that “just happened.” As such, it was not part of their narrative and most were uncomfortable discussing it, primarily because they considered it private and “inappropriate for public discourse” much like sexuality or emotional instability. And the steps taken to address it: Watch and wait for it to be over.
• The daughters, on the other hand, were likely to seek medical treatment as soon as symptoms appeared. This behavior is consistent with the premise that menopause has been increasingly medicalized. However, it wasn’t simply menopause that the younger women were fighting but on a larger level, aging. “In other words, menopause was just the beginning of a long, downhill battle that cannot possibly be won,” but can be controlled and self-managed. Moreover, these women’s fear was not necessarily entrenched in hot flashes and night sweats, but in what the start of menopause meant in terms of the delineation between youth and middle/old age and even “end of life as we know it,” a new older life stage that was unwelcome. The “cure” of course, were hormones and other pharmaceutically-derived interventions, which represented a way to “suspend old age” and control the physiological aspects of aging.

Not surprisingly, Utz also points to the ‘Menopause Industry:’ a “profit-seeking enterprise comprising pharmaceutical companies and perpetuated by the media intent on “turning 40 million baby boomer women into patients for life by defining menopause as an estrogen deficiency disease requiring significant medical intervention.”  While the companies create the drugs, the media (whose increased attention attention to menopause, largely fueled by the wave of 1970s feminism and in part, funded by corporate interests) not only provide women with access to the information and resources that they seek but also contribute to perceptions of personal control among women who do not want to “sit back and let menopause just happen to them.” The result is that the Menopause Industry has not only developed products that these women crave that allows them to win their battle against old-age, but, continues to highlight the need for them.

Where does this leave us?

Although some women have fallen off the HRT wagon post-WHI study findings, others have remained. And even more expect the pharmaceutical industry to come up with something different to “quell the realities of their aging bodies.” Are we/they in for a surprise? Perhaps, because as Utz writes, aging is inevitable, even with quick fixes, and that at some point “the perceived autonomy and need for personal control may make [these women] more vulnerable or less prepared than their mothers to face the realities of old age.”

I’d like to offer another, more positive construct up for consideration:

Taking control doesn’t have to mean that the aging process is denied, stopped or obliterated, medicalized or industrialized. Rather, it means taking charge to feel better, more vibrant, healthier so that you/we/I can live the best life I can live while we are alive. For me personally, that doesn’t mean hormone replacement or botox or lipo; it means trying to make more healthier decisions, control or address my symptoms with evidence-based alternatives and accept the transition as a natural part of my journey. So, much like the mothers in this research, I consider this time an opportunity for shifting priorities and interests that open all sorts of possibilities. And like the daughters, I want to take the experience out of the closet and foster discussion and sharing. Ultimately, I’d like the see a more natural course driven by women themselves, as opposed to societal expectations and stigmatization of the aging process and as opposed to the Menopause Industrial Complex.

What about you?

Whole body vibration training: what’s the lowdown on bone health?

Posted by Liz on Aug 15, 2011 in bone health | 2 comments

Back in 2009, I wrote a post about the positive effect that whole body vibration training might have on body composition. Now, researchers are suggesting that it may actually affect bone health in a beneficial way.  Who would have thunk it?

If you don’t know what I’m referring to, whole body vibration training utilizes a vibration platform  for a number of theoretical benefits ranging from weight loss and rehabilitation for muscles to improved balance However, it is also promoted a low-impact alternative to drugs and other therapies to counteract bone loss associated with aging. The concept itself is a bit strange; a person stands, feet shoulder length apart , knees locked and hands to their sides on a vibrating platform producing between.3g’s and 1.1g’s (28Hz-60Hz) of vibration for up to 30 minutes a day (the maximum recommended vibration exposure without adverse effects). That’s it. No cardio, no weight training, no nothing. Just a whole lotta vibration.

So, does it or doesn’t it?

According to a study in the Journal of Osteoporosis, just 20 minutes of intermittent vibration (one minute on, one minuter rest) at low frequency, low magnitude strength (i.e. 12 Hz) resulted in significant and clinically meaningful declines in a primary marker for bone resorption (when bone cells break down bone). In this study, 46 postmenopausal women received vibration once or three times weekly over eight weeks compared to sham vibration (minimal, continuous vibration) once weekly. Of note, a third had already been diagnosed with osteoporosis, osteoporotic fractures or osteopenia, and 41%, with osteoarthritis. In other words, two thirds of these women already had issues with bone health.

The findings?

For the first time, whole body vibration training was shown to benefit bone health. In fact, the primary marker for bone resorption was reduced by 34.6% in women who had vibration therapy three times a week compared to women who had the sham vibration, which researchers say is clinically meaningful. The key was training at least three times week with high frequency, low magnitude vibration whereas training only one day a week only had minimal benefit.

Importantly, this decline is also significant when compared to a 25% reduction in markers of bone resorption in women with osteoporosis/oteopenia who take medication and regularly walk.

Information is still needed on factors like the duration of vibration training, if more or less would suffice and if benefits can actually be maintained over time. It’s also unclear if gender, nutritional or hormone status or use of medications affects the value of vibration training. Still, the results are pretty encouraging.

Positive vibrations? Yeah, you bet!

Wednesday Bubble: diabetes and the ‘pause

Posted by Liz on Jul 27, 2011 in diabetes, menopause | 0 comments

When I saw a post on my Facebook stream linking hormonal imbalance to diabetes, I become intrigued, ever more so when I ran across the following headline in my daily newsfeed:

“Does menopause matter when it comes to diabetes?”

So, does it or doesn’t it?

According to the first piece that resides on the website of the hormone franchise, BodyLogic MD, imbalances of  hormones other than insulin can promote insulin imbalances or resistance that is especially evident during menopause. Their hypothesis? Hormone replacement will correct these imbalances and prevent millions of women from developing diabetes.

In fact, there is evidence that as endogenous androgen levels rise and estrogen levels fall, there is a predisposition to glucose intolerance (i.e. a struggle to convert blood sugar or glucose into energy) and by default, diabetes. Moreover, estrogen therapy has been shown to reduce fasting blood glucose levels in menopausal women (fasting blood glucose or sugar measures glucose levels in the bloodstream and is a test for pre- and full blown diabetes). However, it is unknown if menopause itself is associated with high glucose levels or plays a role in influencing factors such as insulin secretion and insulin resistance that mediate glucose tolerance. Nevertheless, it is possible that menopause status may tip the scales in women who are already at high risk for diabetes or even influence activities undertaken to prevent the condition.

In a soon to be published study (August issue, Menopause journal), researchers compared perimenopausal women to women who had entered menopause naturally and those who had had their ovaries removed. All participants were between the ages of 45 and 58, and part of a larger Diabetes Prevention Program trial, meaning that they already had been diagnosed with having impaired glucose tolerance and fasting glucose levels and were at risk for diabetes. Of the 1,237 women studied, they had either been assigned twice daily diabetes medication (Metformin), twice-daily placebo tablet or an intensive lifestyle intervention to achieve and maintain a weight reduction of at least 7% (through a low-calorie, low-fat diet, and at least 150 minutes moderate physical activity weekly).

Use it or lose it – more on osteoporosis

Posted by Liz on Jul 15, 2011 in bone health, osteoporosis | 0 comments

Bone health and osteoporosis. Yes, I know I keep writing about it. The reason is simple: you ARE at risk of losing your bone density and strength, especially if you are a woman over the age of 35. And if you are 50 or older? You have as much as a 40% risk of suffering a fracture due to osteoporosis during the rest of your lifetime. Moreover, during the first five years after menopause, women can experience as much as a 30% loss of bone density.

I can’t emphasize it enough. The risk is there. It is inevitable. However, you can reduce your risk a little bit by incorporating the following message into your life:

Use it. Or lose it.

In other words, you need to move.

The latest news out of the esteemed Cochrane Collaboration (an international organization that extensively reviews medical research) is that exercise specifically designed to promote bone growth and preserve existing bone mass, namely the type that places mechanical stress on the body, is necessary.  The newly-published review of 43, scientifically sound (i.e. randomized, controlled studies) is an update of a review that appeared in 2000. Of the 4,320 postmenopausal women included in the reviewed trials:

• Those who engaged in any form of exercise had slightly less (0.85%) bone loss than women who did not.
• Those who performed combinations of exercise types, i.e. walking, jogging, dancing, progressive resistance training, vibration platform had, on average, as much as 3.2% less bone loss than those who did not exercise.
• Non-weight bearing exercise, such as progressive resistance strength training targeting the lower limbs, was shown to slightly preserve bone mineral density at the hip, while the combination of exercise, per above, was most beneficial for slightly preserving bone mineral density at the spine. (Did you know that spine and hip fractures are the most common among women with osteoporosis?)

The conclusions are pretty clear: long periods of inactivity lead to reduced bone mass.However, here is a simple way to mitigate some of this loss, albeit slightly, and even help reduce the costly effects of osteoporosis: Exercise.

The best exercises? Those that stress or mechanically load the bones, meaning the type that make the bones support body weight or resist movement, such as aerobic or strength training, walking, or Tai Chi.

Ultimately, your goal is prevent osteoporosis from occurring in the first place. While some amount of bone loss is part and parcel with aging, resistance training is critical.

Move it or lose it.